Casino Luxembourg: 20 Years by 20 Artists

1 year ago

On 22 March 2016 Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain celebrated its twentieth anniversary. In the past twenty years, Casino Luxembourg had the great pleasure and honour to support some thousand interesting and promising artists who presented pioneering, often much acclaimed and sometimes controversial exhibitions, all of which have helped to assert Casino’s position as an internationally acknowledged art centre.

We asked a number of artists to contribute to the present video by sharing statements about their personal experiences, memories or anecdotes in relation with Casino Luxembourg.

Casino Luxembourg would very much like to thank the following artists for their contribution:

Cher Casino by Boris Achour

Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain holds contemporary art exhibitions with an international programme of mainly younger-generation artists. The art centre houses public spaces with a variety of uses and vocations, combining contemporary art with a warm and friendly meeting place: the ground floor, next to a library specialising in contemporary art, has “BlackBox” projection rooms devoted to artists’ videos; an area dedicated to learning activities, and a café-restaurant, the ca(fé)sino. The first floor is exclusively used for temporary exhibitions, so artists’ monographs and themed exhibitions are shown here. These are completed by a varied programme of guided tours, conferences and encounters with contemporary music, as well as artists in residence. Far from any museological concerns, the Casino functions like an artistic and experimental think tank heading for the latest trends in the art scene.

Déi 3 vun der WSA

1 year ago

Déi 3 vun der WSA (“Three Guys from WSA”), a film by Yann Tonnar.

WSA – Bettembourg (Warehouse Service Agency) used to be an industrial site where maintenance services of U.S. military gear were performed. In 1995 the agency cut jobs. That same year, Luxembourg was appointed Cultural Capital of Europe, and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, which had just opened to the public, took on three former WSA workmen as museum guards.

Within a single day, Marco, Aly and Carlo, who had been working at WSA as drivers and warehouse keepers, were transferred from a military base to a centre for contemporary art. They no longer watched over trucks and tanks but over works of art.

This interview tells the story of the experiences of those “Three Guys from WSA” during their twenty years at Casino Luxembourg. The interview was conducted by Yann Tonnar during the shooting of the documentary “Atelier Luxembourg”.

On 22 March 2016 Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain reopens after almost three months of renovation works, celebrating its 20th anniversary. Indeed, the reopening of Casino Luxembourg coincides 20 years later, to the day, with its creation on 22 March 1996.

The new architectural concept aims at a more practical and fluid reorganisation of the interior spaces, as well as better accessibility for the public. The ground floor, a crossroads and meeting point, has an entirely redesigned welcome area, next to the existing library; projection rooms devoted to artists’ videos and video documentation of exhibitions; an area dedicated to learning activities and creative workshops; and a café-restaurant, ca(fé)sino. The temporary exhibitions are exclusively presented on the first floor in a redesigned exhibition area.